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Is the United States Splitting Apart?
Townhall ^ | 09/25/2013 | Ben Shapiro

Posted on 09/25/2013 10:24:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

In September, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted to secede from the State of California. "Many proposed laws are unconstitutional and deny us our God-given rights," said one attendee at the council meeting. "We need our own state so we can make laws that fit our way of life." A few weeks later, the Modoc County Board of Supervisors voted to join Siskiyou in the new state of Jefferson, voting 4-0 to leave California.

The board votes didn't mean much legally -- the federal government and state government of California would have to recognize the new proposed state of Jefferson. But symbolically, the vote recognizes the growing incompatibility of leftist governance and conservative populations, and vice versa. California is the United States writ small: a state increasingly dominated by Democrats at the top levels, but remaining largely red locally; a state with a massive gap between the major metropolitan areas, which trend deeply blue, and the more rural conservative areas. Increasingly, the two populations simply can't work together.

And thus conservatives are leaving. More and more business have taken off for Texas, New Mexico, Nevada. Three companies a week left California for Texas from 1990 to 2010 (about one company left Texas for California each week during that same period). California's population growth has been driven largely by illegal immigration. The breadbasket of California in the San Joaquin Valley has been devastated by a combination of federal and state environmental regulations.

Conservatives in California still have someplace to go. But what happens when states begin falling, one after another, for the Democratic playbook? As California drives itself deeper into the mire, even leftists are unsatisfied with its style of living -- and they're leaving. Between 1995 and 2000, California lost nearly 67,000 residents to Texas, and lost 94,000 to Arizona; California also lost 55,000 to Colorado. Those emigrants probably voted heavily Democrat in California. Now they've moved to new states, where they will undoubtedly copycat the same destructive practices that drove them from their original homes.

After all, that's what happened to California. California used to be a reliably middle-of-the-road state -- it was home to both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But from 1955 to 1960, California absorbed large liberal populations from states like New York (nearly 99,000) and Illinois (100,000). That trend continued and was exacerbated by immigration across the southern border. The Republican Party didn't help itself any with Proposition 187 under the governorship of Pete Wilson, which targeted public services for illegal immigrants. Now California is perhaps the bluest state in the nation, even though on the local level, it remains largely red.

So what happens when people run out of places to run? What happens when all of America's major metro areas go blue and those populations control states with conservative rural populations? What happens when those conservatives get sick of paying for the excesses of leftist governance?

Exactly what's happening in California? And while California's secessionists may seem like a frivolity now, they may be an early warning of what's to come if Americans cannot reunite around common political principles.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: calexit; california; cwii; newcalifornia; secession; stateofjefferson; timdraper; unitedstates
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To: Adder

“Well if you live there you should know but when you see an issue like homosexual marriage being defeated rather handily, there is some red left.”

Good post and excellent point.


81 posted on 09/25/2013 5:32:03 PM PDT by BizBroker (There is no "radical Islam", there is only Islam itself.)
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To: RKBA Democrat
The prospect of lots of dead Americans always seems to be ignored when talk of Glorious Secession is in the air.

This isn't 1861. Americans aren't going to murder each other by the millions over a purely political question of union.

If it does come to one or several states seceding, there'll definitely be fireworks, and yes, some folks are going to pay the ultimate price, but put away the visions of the U.S. military invading any sovereign state to stop them from leaving. It simply will never happen.

82 posted on 09/25/2013 5:42:52 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: kabar
<...”Unless we reduce legal immigration and stop illegal immigration, the entire country will look like CA.”...>

I get the feel’in that's the intentions of Congress and any member of the administration now or coming down the pike.

Oh they'll pass out some bones and cover them with gravy so we think we're eating a meal.... ....they'll shore up the border tighter but not because of immigration...it will be to accommodate the trade deals and traffic as they unite us with canada and mexico as one trading block...Obama's already signed that deal on the International Stage.

I was really livid about that for it never made the news....slipped right by everyone.

While we're all caught up in home affairs Obama's signing away everything possible for he knows his time is short...getting it ready for Hillary to take the entire nation into the Globalist Agenda.

There just doesn't seem to be enough of us with enough power to strangle the beasts that have taken over...or at least of those who know what's going on...

83 posted on 09/25/2013 5:53:40 PM PDT by caww
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To: SeekAndFind
Those emigrants probably voted heavily Democrat in California. Now they've moved to new states, where they will undoubtedly copycat the same destructive practices that drove them from their original homes.

Wouldn't most of the early out-migrants have been Republicans? At some point more would be Democrats since the state now leans heavily to the left, but it's definitely more complicated than the passage suggests.

After all, that's what happened to California. California used to be a reliably middle-of-the-road state -- it was home to both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. But from 1955 to 1960, California absorbed large liberal populations from states like New York (nearly 99,000) and Illinois (100,000). That trend continued and was exacerbated by immigration across the southern border.

I guess so, but the interesting thing would be seeing if native Californians or long-time residents also switched to the Democrats and when. There's a national trend in the urban states that may outweigh the trend in particular states.

I'd also suppose more than a few of those Illinoisans weren't all that liberal. At least a few may have been more like the Iowans and Nebraskans who'd been migrating west for years.

84 posted on 09/25/2013 5:54:08 PM PDT by x
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To: SeekAndFind

Splitting? No. Splitted.


85 posted on 09/25/2013 6:16:22 PM PDT by Old Yeller (Who am I to judge homosexuals? That's what the Tony Awards are for.)
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To: Windflier

“This isn’t 1861. Americans aren’t going to murder each other by the millions over a purely political question of union.”

Just two weeks ago, we were talking about entering a war in Syria for, what? To maintain dear leader’s credibility? Secession would fundamentally change the power dynamic. It would be a threat.

The last war between the states wasn’t all that popular with the masses who got to fight it, either. Especially in the north, e.g. the draft riots of 1863.

You noted in your response that “some folks are going to pay the ultimate price.” In that we agree. But let’s not talk vague generalities. Let’s put a number to “some.” Are we talking ten million Americans? Five million? Roughly 2.5 % of the US population died in the last war between the states. So let’s be wildly optimistic and assume that only one tenth of that percentage would perish in a second war between the states. Still, if you do the math that turns out to be roughly 800,000 people. So is 800,000 dead Americans going to be considered a fair price to pay for Glorious Secession?

With all respect, I’m not willing to pay that butcher bill. And I intend to do my best to convince others of the same.


86 posted on 09/25/2013 6:53:42 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Power disintegrates when people withdraw their obedience and support)
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To: RKBA Democrat

Another ‘war between the states’ is not going to happen over a matter of secession. Period.

If one or more red states decide to unhook from the union, there will be flare ups of violence between red and blue individuals in those states, but it won’t become a matter for the military. Ever.

To think otherwise, is some sort of paranoid delusion. Americans simply do not have the stomach to murder millions of their fellows over a purely political question of union.

Heck, nearly all of the blue states would be cheering us on to leave.


87 posted on 09/25/2013 7:04:27 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: M Kehoe

I don’t think so.

Most of the military assets are in red states, and they are manned by folks that take the original American dream seriously.

The cities are the goiters that are hanging off the country right now. NYC is about to be ground zero in all of this.

This DeBlasio character is going to finally run the financial folks out of Manhattan, and that will be the ball game for NYC, since it literally is the only thing propping it up right now.

Obama declared war on JP Morgan this week. Dimon needs to fight it, or we will well and truly see some grim stuff.

The USG has been pushing the banks around for too long cleaning up messes they made.

Could their be a secession movement in the US? If there is, there will be a referendum on the Constitution first - to wit there will be people measuring the degree to which the laws and regulations have delaminated from the original intent.

It will go like all revolutions, and Jacques Barzun did that analysis better than anyone else. Read the first part of 500 Years of Western Civilization. Excellent stuff.


88 posted on 09/27/2013 10:06:41 AM PDT by RinaseaofDs
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